Two Bob Hope Soundtracks

I was looking through an old backup drive a few weeks ago and came across a number of LPs that I transferred many years ago, probably even before I had this blog. I've now remastered some of them and will be presenting them here periodically.

We start with two soundtracks from a few of Bob Hope's later and less remembered movies: Beau James from 1957 and Paris Holiday from the following year.

Beau James

I've seen Beau James, but not for many years, but I do recall that it is a romanticized film about jazz age New York Mayor Jimmy Walker. It was based on a book by hagiographer Gene Fowler, whose most famous opus was probably Good Night, Sweet Price, a similarly misty-eyed tribute to John Barrymore.

Jimmy Walker

In case you haven't guessed, Hope plays Walker, in a rare dramatic role. Both the film and the book seem to take the attitude that it was forgivable for "Beau James" to take loads of bribes because He Loved His City. The charming rogue stereotype worked overtime during that period, for sure.

The music has little to do with this, of course, and it at least is enjoyable. In it, music director Joe Lilley weaves together smooth versions of standards of the age (including "Manhattan," of course). Both Hope and columnist Walter Winchell intone obsequies to Walker over the title music. Winchell returns to do the same, even more fulsomely, over the closing number.

Imogene Lynn

The singing on the LP is handled by Hope and Imogene Lynn, who dubs the vocals of love interest Vera Miles. That's Miles on the cover, seemingly dressed as a nun, smooching a uninterested Hope, who appears to be an invalid.

Hope of course could sing, and introduced a number of notable tunes, but here the 54-year-old's voice is dry. The talented Lynn is much better, particularly in "Someone to Watch Over Me." A former band singer, she cycled through such vocal groups as the Merry Macs before becoming a studio artist who handled a good number of film dubbing assignments.

The one original song on the soundtrack is "His Honor the Mayor of New York," with music by Lilley and words by the ubiquitous Sammy Cahn. It is a duet by Hope and Jimmy Durante, set during a tribute dinner to Walker. The number eventually turns into a soft-shoe version of "Sidewalks of New York."

The anticlimactic "Tammany Parade March" follows, and completing the LP is the closing medley with Winchell voice-over. The columnist and radio personality would forever be associated with the Jazz Age, although the Walker regime (1926-32) was near the beginning of his career. A few years after this film was made, Winchell would provide the staccato intros for the wildly popular American television show The Untouchables, which dramatized (and romanticized) Eliot Ness' government agents battling the Capone mob in 1920s Chicago.

Paris Holiday

Hope returned to comedy and better voice in 1958 for his caper film Paris Holiday, sharing billing with French comic Fernandel and supported by Martha Hyer and Anita Ekberg.

The "soundtrack" album includes music written for the film by Joe Lilley, which is pleasant and well arranged. It adds two songs by Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, the title tune and "Nothing in Common." The latter had been slated for the film - as a duet for Hope and Hyer - but was cut. So Hope decided to reunite with Bing Crosby to do a version for the quasi-soundtrack LP, adding a special version of the title tune as well. Bing did not appear in the movie, but does show up on the front and back covers of the LP.

In bringing in Bing for "Nothing in Common," Bob hoped to rekindle the repartee that marked their duets from their Road pictures. Cahn's lyrics even references the studio for those films, Paramount, even though Paris Holiday was released by United Artists. Some of you may be familiar with the version of "Nothing in Common" that Frank Sinatra cut with Keely Smith. Same tune, but completely different words by the remarkably glib Cahn - possibly the lyrics slated for the Hope-Hyer duet. Both the Hope-Crosby and Sinatra-Smith versions were recorded at about the time of the film's release in early 1958. On the LP, "Nothing in Common" appears twice, via the duet and an instrumental. The Cahn-Van Heusen title song shows up three times.

The album also offers a few chestnuts in blossom such as "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and "April in Paris." The liner notes explain that Hope's "madcap memories of Paris" inspired him to record these "for posterity" (and probably money). He sings both songs with chorus - very well, too. He indulges in a comic dialogue with a unknown actress in "The Last Time I Saw Paris," and a monologue in  "April in Paris."

The 45 picture sleeves

In addition to the LP, United Artists released the Hope-Crosby songs as a single with a double-sided picture sleeve, then packaged those numbers with Bob's Paris tunes to make up an EP.

Both albums are in good-sounding mono. I don't believe either was ever issued in stereo. Paris Holiday was United Artists' first soundtrack LP.